Ondrej Holzman China is very important for Apple, Tim Cook himself has emphasized this several times. Why not, when the Chinese market is the second largest, after the American one, on which the Californian company can operate. But so far, it has not been able to make a significant breakthrough in Asia. The situation can be changed by an agreement with the largest operator in the world, but the latter dictates its own conditions. And Apple is not used to that...
Negotiations with mobile operators in the world took place practically according to one scenario. A person interested in selling iPhones came to Apple, signed the dictated terms and walked away with a signed contract. But in China the situation is different. Other brands rule the market there. Samsung is in the lead, followed by five other companies, before Apple comes next. The latter is losing mainly due to the fact that it does not sell the iPhone in the network of the largest operator in the country, China Mobile.
One of the reasons for this is the fact that the current iPhone 5 is simply expensive. Customers in China aren't as financially powerful as in the United States, and the iPhone 5 probably wouldn't go that far even if it was displayed in every China Mobile store. However, everything can change with the new iPhone, which Apple is going to introduce on September 10.
If the speculation is confirmed and Apple actually shows a cheaper variant of its phone, the plastic iPhone 5C, the deal with China Mobile may be a lot easier. A much larger percentage of customers in China could already hear about a cheaper Apple phone. After all, Samsung and other manufacturers rule here due to the fact that they flood the market with cheap Android smartphones.
But whether the cooperation will come to fruition will not depend so much on China Mobile, which would certainly like to offer the iPhone1, but on Apple whether it will be willing to back down from its traditional demands. "China Mobile holds all the power in this relationship," says Edward Zabitsky, managing director of ACI Research. "China Mobile to Offer iPhone the Moment Apple Drops Its Price."
The price of the iPhone 5 in China ranges from 5 yuan (less than 288 crowns) to 17 yuan, which is twice as much as the K6 IdeaPhone, Lenovo's flagship smartphone. It is number two in the Chinese market after Samsung. "Apple's reluctance to provide any meaningful discount and China Mobile's reluctance to subsidize expensive devices have so far prevented a deal," according to analyst John Bright of Avondale Partners. "A cheaper iPhone, more affordable for a larger part of China Mobile's customers, could be a good compromise." And that China Mobile is truly blessed with customers under its belt, controlling 63 percent of the billion-plus market.
It is already certain that the path to a common consensus will not be/was not easy. Negotiations between Apple and China Mobile have been going on for several years. Already in 2010, Steve Jobs negotiated with the then chairman Wang Jinazhou. He revealed that everything was on the right track, but then a new management came in 2012, and it was harder on Apple. Executive Director Li Yue stated that the business plan and benefit sharing must be resolved with Apple. Since then, Apple boss Tim Cook himself has been to China twice. However, it is possible that a deal is indeed in the works. Apple on September 11 announced a special keynote, which will be held directly in China, the day after the introduction of new products. And it is the announcement of the agreement with China Mobile that is a likely topic.
But one thing is certain - if China Mobile and Apple shake hands, it will be a deal like no other before. There is talk that the Chinese operator will even force a share of earnings from the App Store. “China Mobile believes it should get a piece of the content pie. Apple will have to be much more flexible about the whole thing.” estimates the respected specialist on the Chinese market Tucker Grinnan from HSBC.
We will probably know more on 11/XNUMX, but for both parties, any cooperation will mean profit.
1. China Mobile is certainly interested in the iPhone, which it proved when it introduced the iPhone 4. Its 3G network was not compatible with this phone, so in fear of losing its best customers, it started offering gift cards up to $441 and at the same time built a Wi-Fi network , so users can surf the web and make calls on its legacy 2G network on their iPhones. At that time, Apple's main partner in China was the operator China Unicom, to which customers from China Mobile switched.
that sounds logical. And it would also explain the suffix C in the iPhone name. At the same time, it would confirm my assumption that the iPhone 5C will only be sold in a certain market
That possibility is also being talked about - that, for example, the iPhone 5C would only be presented on September 11 in China, but that seems unlikely to me. It's not Apple's style and it would be a big surprise. After all, I think that the iPhone 5C has far from a chance to succeed not only in China, but also in other markets.
There is no reason for Apple to allow payment of % of App store revenue... the problems that operators have when negotiating contracts regarding the sale of the iPhone are the volumes that Apple requires, tariffs, high subsidies to achieve a low communicated price (however, this does not happen everywhere), marketing support from the operator and service costs
700 million customers (±300 of them have smartphones) is a lot of people, but THEY want an iPhone just as much as Apple wants to get into that market. Revenue sharing would be a dangerous precedent, already in the past a large number of TV groups tried to do this and always left the negotiations with a long nose. In China, the main problem was the Chinese 3G standard they use, and from the 5S and 5C I will have 3G/LTE chipsets with global coverage of all frequencies and variants of 3G/LTE.
Isn't the "C" in the name "5C" simply China? "C"=China :)
It would seem logical to me that the 5c would only be for the Chinese market... then people would stop buying 4s and 4skas elsewhere... and there are still enough of them... besides, they wouldn't have to support these two models for ios7, if they were replaced by a new model..